CERN scientists have discovered tantalizing clues about a fundamental difference in how physics handles matter and antimatter, shedding light on the Universe’s avoidance of an antimatter apocalypse.
Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) verified an asymmetry between matter and antimatter forms of a particle called a baryon. This charge-parity (CP) violation has only previously been detected in another class of particles, mesons. The discovery provides essential evidence that the fundamental laws of physics treat baryons and antibaryons differently.
Researchers analyzed 80,000 particle decay events between 2011 and 2018 to search for a difference in how matter and antimatter decayed into products. They found a statistically significant 2.5% relative difference between the two forms of decaying particles.
The finding reached a statistical significance of 5.2 sigma, indicating that the observed effect comes from random fluctuations only once in 10 million times. This discovery has major implications for physics and questions fundamental aspects like “why are we here?”
While CP symmetry was once considered immutable, some level of CP violation is predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. However, physicists estimate that CP violation must be much larger than what’s predicted.
The study confirms the existence of CP violation in baryons but indicates that it may not be enough to solve the matter-antimatter puzzle on its own. It opens a new window into understanding how CP violation behaves in the baryon sector, largely unexplored by physicists.
This research has significant implications for finding new sources of CP violation beyond the Standard Model’s predictions, which could lead to new physics discoveries.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/breaking-major-antimatter-discovery-may-help-solve-mystery-of-existence